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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: History of the Kamal
From: John Brown
Date: 2016 Mar 10, 05:15 -0800
From: John Brown
Date: 2016 Mar 10, 05:15 -0800
Not long ago I made enquiries about Kamals in the antique nautical bric-a-brac section of the Souk in Muscat, Oman. They certainly knew what I was talking about, but sadly none were to be had.
I believe that these instruments were once in common use by Arab and Indian navigators on the Indian Ocean trade routes used by large, engineless dhows. There is a reference in Alan Villiers' Sons of Sinbad to an Arab Nakhoda (captain) needing to hire an Indian Muallim (mate?) to measure the sun during an Indian Ocean passage. This was in the mid-20th century, so perhaps by then the Kamal had been replaced by the sextant.
John
